The world is one big popularity contest
There is this artist, whose art I once admired, until she was confronted with the accusation that she was tracing. There was a lot of evidence and seeing it made me angry. She said she didn't trace, called other people liars and a flame war started (in which both sides behaved badly)... about half a year later, now, she decided to come clean. She traced, she lied about it...and I am really angry.
I've been lied to often enough, but I'm still naive enough to buy a lot of crap, and I'm always disappointed when the shit hits the fan. Yes, I admit I sometimes am a liar to, so I won't throw stones at others. Lies happen. You lie because you crave love and recognition. Which is probably the same reason why somebody traces. Yes, I traced, too...when I was about 14 and couldn't get a drawing of Dimitri right, but I didn't show it to anybody but my friend, who'd seen me trace it. I once stole a pose, but I felt really bad afterward so I put that drawing away as well. Let's face it, those are not my drawings. If I draw something it might involve struggle, sketches, re-draws, mistakes and it sometimes drives me crazy, but it's mine.
What really made me angry about her tracing was how easily I believed that she, younger than I am, had way more talent than I had. Because she claimed she hadn't been drawing that long and had achieved such a mastery. I'm easily led to doubting my abilities, so I look at other artist, find them better and when I can't reach their level in the same time they reached it, I figure there's something wrong with me. I'm just not talented enough. So, when seeing her stuff I was discouraged. Now she not only admitted to tracing, she also revealed that it is commonplace.
I have seen so many artist that trace and don't admit to it, others that use poses as reference and never list them. I used to list my reference, even if, in my eyes it lessens my achievement, but why do I. All those I know of are really popular artist, and that's just unfair.
Lesson I learned? I should probably stop looking at other peoples art, assuming they'll be straight, maybe I should be more careful. More distrust it is then. Huzzah!
P.S.: There are of course a lot o really talented artists out there, who don't do such things. At least that's what I want to believe.
I've been lied to often enough, but I'm still naive enough to buy a lot of crap, and I'm always disappointed when the shit hits the fan. Yes, I admit I sometimes am a liar to, so I won't throw stones at others. Lies happen. You lie because you crave love and recognition. Which is probably the same reason why somebody traces. Yes, I traced, too...when I was about 14 and couldn't get a drawing of Dimitri right, but I didn't show it to anybody but my friend, who'd seen me trace it. I once stole a pose, but I felt really bad afterward so I put that drawing away as well. Let's face it, those are not my drawings. If I draw something it might involve struggle, sketches, re-draws, mistakes and it sometimes drives me crazy, but it's mine.
What really made me angry about her tracing was how easily I believed that she, younger than I am, had way more talent than I had. Because she claimed she hadn't been drawing that long and had achieved such a mastery. I'm easily led to doubting my abilities, so I look at other artist, find them better and when I can't reach their level in the same time they reached it, I figure there's something wrong with me. I'm just not talented enough. So, when seeing her stuff I was discouraged. Now she not only admitted to tracing, she also revealed that it is commonplace.
I have seen so many artist that trace and don't admit to it, others that use poses as reference and never list them. I used to list my reference, even if, in my eyes it lessens my achievement, but why do I. All those I know of are really popular artist, and that's just unfair.
Lesson I learned? I should probably stop looking at other peoples art, assuming they'll be straight, maybe I should be more careful. More distrust it is then. Huzzah!
P.S.: There are of course a lot o really talented artists out there, who don't do such things. At least that's what I want to believe.